When your view of the world is jiggly, just add more pectin

September 30, 2007

With the Internet, you can gain access to the world every day. This week, plenty happened around the world while I tried unsuccessfully to make a batch of apple jelly. From the Irish News, I learned that 20 harpists gathered to protest a new highway. I've never seen 20 harpists at once anywhere. Another 1,000 protesters lay down to form an aerial-view image of a harp. The Warsaw Voice reported on a group of defrocked Polish nuns barricaded in a convent for two years. On Oct. 10, the ex-nuns will be evicted. Meanwhile, in Myanmar, Buddhist monks protested against the military government. Normally, apolitical monks marched by the thousands to protest government assault of brother monks after they spoke out against rising fuel costs. Now the government may confront them. A sticky situation. The Toronto Star examined a private Islamic school seeking to become a Canadian public school. The school boasts well-mannered students and excellent academics. But the sexes are segregated, and Arabic and Koranic studies swallow up morning recess time and shorten the lunch hour. Would such issues become a problem if the school became public? “100 pythons a year dumped across border” announced a headline in the South China Morning Post. I don't want to know more. From China News, I learn that Shanghai will host a millionaire dating party where beautiful women will bid on 20 young Chinese millionaires. Let me call you sweetheart - for the 58,000 yuan ($7,800) price of admission. How sweet. The poll on a Nigerian newspaper's site asks if the government is doing enough to stem assassinations and kidnappings. Aren't you glad the poll question last week in the Aberdeen News was on liquor licenses? In TV cartoons, a safe teeters from an upper window, and the character below gazes at his reflection in a store window. He straightens his bow tie and never knows what hits him until he is a flat circle on the sidewalk. America seems like that cartoon character sometimes, so preoccupied with Britney Spears' waistline, or current football standings, that it can't drag itself away from its own reflection to view the wider world. Why, though, should we be interested in a Paris riot, when France is so far away? Who cares if Israel recently discovered North Korean nuclear material in Syria? How can that affect me? My lawn needs raking. When you read news from other countries, you know the world better, and you know yourself better. You enhance your appreciation of political, religious and cultural currents in the world. You see how widespread or limited some cultural practices are. Sometimes the only way to find out what's going on in one country is to read about it from a different country's press. In the South Africa Cape Times I discovered - sigh - a story on Britney Spears, but also a story about a Bavarian politician who wants marriage in Germany to automatically expire after seven years. A Caribbean news outlet reports that Canadian gay organizations are trying to stop two reggae groups' concerts in Canada over anti-gay lyrics. The Dubai-based Khaleej Times mentions that a rebel group is threatening to attack Nigeria's oil refineries and kidnap foreign workers. Nigeria produces quite a bit of oil. In May, saboteurs managed to cut Nigerian oil production by nearly a third. World events may not seem as exciting as last week's game, but they might be more important in the long run. My apple jelly never gelled. I'm hoping, though, that my understanding of the world will firm up slightly, if I keep in tune with world events. Donna Marmorstein writes and lives in Aberdeen. You can contact her at dkmarmorstein@yahoo.com.